


Adrift

by sunbug1138



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Mild Peril, Post-Canon, Redeemed Ben Solo, Sabotage, That horrible sinking feeling when your computer crashes and won't boot up again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbug1138/pseuds/sunbug1138
Summary: Set roughly three months prior to Postcards from the Galactic Edge, Rey and Ben are tiring of their seemingly endless task of tracking down the First Order's last major holdouts and supporters.Ben volunteers them for a straightforward mission but invariably things don't end up going as smoothly as expected.





	1. The Departure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sathya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sathya/gifts), [sakurazawa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurazawa/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Art of Broken Pieces](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060209) by [sakurazawa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurazawa/pseuds/sakurazawa), [Sathya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sathya/pseuds/Sathya). 



> This story popped into my head almost fully formed while working on chapter 12 of Postcards from the Galactic Edge, unfortunately that didn't necessarily make it particularly easy to write and I've been working on it off and on for the better part of the last six weeks. 
> 
> In terms of time line this story takes place about two months before the Canto Bight Caper and Postcards from the Galactic Edge.
> 
> Their ship, The Orphan is a new model H-type Nubian - like Padmè's ship in episodes 2&3\. But without the ultra shiny finish. Ari'li is the Chiss orphan Rey and Ben rescued from traffickers during The Art of Broken Pieces. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> 24/5/18  
> I've made a small edit based on having seen Solo earlier today and finally getting around to reading a certain passage of The Last Jedi novelisation. It's not a spoiler just a small adjustment/clarification.

“Why are we doing this again?” Rey asked, her tone a mix of annoyance and weariness, as they boarded the Orphan. In her arms she carried a small crate containing a half dozen or so small tracker drones. She was dressed in an unfamiliar jumpsuit that she found constricting and uncomfortably warm. It was thoroughly unsuited to Yavin IV’s predominantly warm and humid climate; though in a few hours time she knew she’d be glad of it.

Ben never seemed to feel the cold and was wearing his usual ensemble of dark trousers and a shirt that had once been off-white but she’d accidentally dyed dark green while attempting to cover some stubborn blood stains on a vest of hers. Over the shirt he wore an old, but still serviceable, brownish-green woollen uniform jacket with four roomy pockets on the front. Rey suspected it was older than he was. Ben had found it a few months back while they had been helping Finn and Rose clear out an old store room in the lower levels of the one of the smaller ancillary temple structures. Finn had claimed a ratty old chair that had been a source of no little contention between himself and Rose.

Ben’s response was flat and to the point, almost irritatingly so. “So we can trace and investigate this lead.”

Rey frowned as she attempted to shift the awkwardly proportioned crate into a more comfortable position and tentatively reached out with the Force, to her increasing exasperation she found he was strangely unreadable.

“No. I mean, why are _we_ doing this? There must be plenty of other operatives who are just as capable of carrying out this particular mission.”

Ben avoided her gaze, working his jaw.

“I volunteered,” he said quietly.

Rey placed the crate down on the deck, her features softening as she sighed and lent against the bulkhead beside him. Her eyes met his, searchingly. “Are you volunteering for every possible mission?”

Ben didn’t reply, instead reaching out and hitting the release for the boarding ramp. There was a slight whine and the wheeze of hydraulics as the boarding ramp retracted and the hatch closed up behind them.

She pursed her lips for a moment before reaching out to cover his hand with hers. She knew he was still finding it difficult to integrate with her friends on Yavin; he spent most of his time with just her or Ari’li. She wondered if he was taking on so many missions in quick succession to avoid being around people who made him uncomfortable, or rather who he was concerned _he_ made feel uncomfortable.

Eventually there would come a point when the missions would tail off - already she wished they would have no more for the foreseeable future - when they would have no choice but to work closely with people besides each other on a regular basis.

“Ben, I know you’re trying to make up for what you did. And that’s commendable. But you don’t have to take on every single mission that comes up. You do know that right? No one will think any less of you for saying no once in a while, or just not offering.”

His eyes bore into hers; dark, infinite pools she could so easily lose herself in.

“I know, I just…”

Ben found he was unable to tell to her that a major factor in his acceptance of the assignment was that it took them close to Naboo and that he had made arrangements for a short stay in the Lake Country as much needed respite. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell her, it just didn’t seem like the right time and he somehow couldn’t find the right words.

Once, a combination of pride and self-loathing borne from ever-present nagging guilt, had prevented him from being able to give her even a simple vest. Now, something more akin to shyness mixed with the same self-loathing made broaching the subject of a surprise short trip next to impossible.

Kylo Ren would have had no problem informing her of the addition to their itinerary. He would have curtly informed her that they were taking a break and probably would have scooped her up in his arms and carried her on board the ship if she had protested. He did have previous form after all. 

But Ben Solo was more reticent and still couldn’t quite believe that this woman, whose tenacity and heart took his breath away, wanted to be with him. The near constant fear that he was about to put his ridiculously large foot in it and he would find himself alone again led to him over thinking things and hesitating until the ideal moment had invariably passed.

Their life for the better part of the last year could only be described as nomadic with no particular fixed routine in which to take comfort. During their, all too, brief sojourns on Yavin they were either in meetings, or trying to get out of meetings and spend time with Ari’li or even just alone, relaxing; something that was impossible when they were off world on a mission.

Their rooms on Yavin looked and were, for the most part, barely lived in and sparsely furnished. Their only belongings were their lightsabers, a few changes of clothes, the Orphan and its contents and a few small keepsakes. Ben had found an old deck of Sabacc cards in the Falcon and had pocketed them, those and his father’s dice were his only mementos of a time when he last felt untroubled, though in truth he couldn’t really remember a time even as a child when there wasn’t some dark presence hovering at the back of his mind. Rey had the books she had taken from Ahch-To and a small box containing some of Leia’s personal effect that had been left to her but she still couldn’t bare to open.

They had politely rebuffed any suggestion that Threepio pass into their possession. Ben’s feelings towards the protocol droid were on a par with his father’s and previous experience of droids while growing up had left him with an aversion to anything beyond astromechs that he was reluctant to explain to anyone including Rey.

Much to their surprise though, Artoo had decided, a few months previously, to move in to their rooms. They had just returned from a mission to Ryloth and nearly tripped over him as, dazed with exhaustion, they had stumbled into the dark living area.

Following veritable masterclass in binary profanity the small droid had informed them that he had let himself in and would be staying there. Rey had asked why Artoo didn’t want stay with the other astromechs.

Too gossipy, Artoo had claimed. He didn’t share the other astromechs’ interest in the love-lives of the pilot corps or their home-brewing side projects. None of this was exactly true but he was keenly feeling the absence of his usual conversational partner who had a fondness for juicy gossip, particularly relating to romantic escapades. 

Ben’s attempt to suggest that their past history might make co-habitation uncomfortable was also curtly dismissed with Artoo, somehow, managing to convey a shrug. The droid felt that it was time to let bygones be bygones. Pointing out that if he was able to break in to their rooms, anyone might be able to and he could keep an eye on the place when they were away. Ben, tired and in no mood to debate the point, decided it was best to just let Artoo have his way.

And so, from that point onwards, Artoo took up permanent residence, spending most of his time in low-power mode. Occasionally he would come to life and make amusingly caustic remarks that would elicit demands for clarification from Ari’li. Rey often wondered whether he was getting a bit senile, if that was possible for a droid, or his vocaliser circuits needed maintenance, as sometimes his beeps for Rey sounded more like ‘May’.

Ben longed for all this supposed adventure and excitement to come to an end so they could retire to a small place of their own where they could spend their days just pottering around. Rey could try and make sense of the Jedi texts she had pilfered from Luke. He might even take up calligraphy again. And then there would be Ari’li; she’d keep them on their toes, and prevent them from getting too bored.

While he hadn’t been back to Naboo since he was a small child, he had fond memories of lush rolling meadows, and clear blue lakes, far from the noisy bustle of Theed.

There they could do otherwise simple things like enjoy proper, relaxed meals rather than a random assortment of whatever they could find, hastily grabbed between debriefings and planning meetings. Go for a walk for no other reason than to walk together and enjoy each other’s company, something they’d never really done. Sleep in a real, decently proportioned bed. Not sleep… in a real, decently proportioned bed.

After he had volunteered for the mission he had made a hitherto unheard of visit to Poe Dameron. It was a painfully awkward meeting but he managed to mention that he had hoped that he and Rey might take a detour on their way back and visit Naboo briefly.

For his part, Poe still wasn’t completely won over. It was still too soon for them to bridge the chasm past events had opened up between the two men. But it was slowly edging closed even if they were not wholly aware of it. The more time he spent with Ben, and the more he saw of him, and those personality traits that were so like his mother and father, along with how he behaved with Rey and Ari’li, the more he found himself thinking of him first and foremost as Ben Solo.

He also recognised Ben’s punishing workload as a form of atonement, and while he was slightly resentful of Rey being dragged along, he respected that it was her choice to join Ben and her clear commitment to him even if he didn’t fully understand it himself. Back when he was still Kylo Ren she had seen something in Ben that hadn’t been immediately clear to anyone else; and that Poe supposed what was what deep abiding love was all about.

Ben’s request had done much to allay Poe’s misgivings. Now he that knew that Ben was indeed aware of the toll it was taking on Rey, and was actively trying to alleviate it, Poe had readily and happily agreed to Ben’s hesitant request to extend their time away.

“You know you don’t have run your personal plans past me.”

His tone was not entirely unkind as he assented.

Why he had able to broach the subject with Poe but not Rey left him confused and vexed with himself.

Rey removed her hand from Ben’s and raised it to his cheek, tracing along the faded scar, a small smile played on her lips. She sensed that he shared her exasperation, but there was something else, something that he was keeping from her. She was unwilling to push him further on this point; when he was ready he’d tell her. She could tell that it wasn’t anything serious; she suspected he’d probably just had some small gift for her that he was too shy to mention, again.

“I know, sweetheart,” he murmured in agreement with both her assessment of him and her feelings about their current situation as he pulled her in to an all encompassing embrace. She wriggled in protest, reminding herself she was annoyed with him. But she wasn’t really. Just annoyed at the state of the galaxy that necessitated this constant, seemingly fruitless chase. She stilled and closed her eyes as she leant into him. She was content for now, held tight in his arms listening to his heartbeat it almost felt like nothing else existed but the two of them.

They were rudely interrupted by the comm link in her pocket crackling to life: “Come on you two, enough of whatever it is you are up to. There are other ships waiting to launch you know.”

Rey shook her head in amusement and exasperation at Poe’s trademark tactlessness. Ben just rolled his eyes. At least being teased was marginally better than having Dameron actively disapproving of their relationship; it meant that he now accepted it.

“Haven’t you got anything better to do than direct air traffic, _Senator_?” Rey grumbled.

Ben plucked the comm link from Rey’s hand, “We’re just about to get underway, Sir.” He smiled as he handed the comm link back to her. Rey pocketed it and made a face at him. “ _Sir_?”

“What?” Ben’s eyes reminded Rey so much of an affronted Porg’s that she nearly burst out laughing.

“Why are you being all… nice to Poe all of a sudden?”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “He is your friend, and also technically our boss, what would you rather I do?”

Rey started to say something, but stopped herself. Bringing up Poe’s brief sojourn on the Finaliser would have been impolitic. As much as she hoped he and her and her closest friends would eventually get along, she wasn’t sure the galaxy could handle Ben and Poe being friends. In some ways they were very alike, their potential escapades didn’t even bear contemplating.

“I never thought I’d hear you refer to Poe as our boss,” she said with a faint smile.

“Me neither, but he’s a damn better man than my previous one.” If some one had told him five years ago he’d be taking orders, after a fashion, from Poe Dameron, someone would have ended up on the wrong side of an airlock; either them or himself. But a much younger Ben Solo, the small boy who had dreamed of becoming a pilot like his father, would have jumped at the chance to have been even given the time of day by Poe Dameron, toast of the flight academy.

“The bar on that one _was_ pretty low.” Rey called back as she headed towards the cockpit.

Ben stowed the abandoned crate before following her up to the cockpit. He found Rey in the pilot’s seat on the comm to the official flight control team verifying their departure clearance.

Settling down at the co-pilot’s station, Ben watched intently as her hands ran deftly over the controls. A few short minutes later The Orphan rose into the air and traced a smooth rising arc out of Yavin IV’s atmosphere. Ben double checked the coordinates of their destination, and gave her a quick nod to indicate that they were ready for the jump to hyperspace.

The mission was straightforward enough. The Republic had received intel that two parties of particular interest in their current hunt for Hux were to rendezvous in a remote location. All they had to do was to release a small number of tracker drones, which would latch on to the ships, allowing the Republic to track them and hopefully reveal where some of the last few First Order holdoutsand supporters were located. They didn’t have to engage the ships, just avoid detection and verify that the drones had acquired their targets. Armed with the time and location, all they needed to do was arrive a little beforehand and wait until they left before departing themselves.


	2. The Mission

They dropped out of hyperspace, roughly midway between Sullust and Naboo, near the edge of a vast debris field. Neither Ben nor Rey were entirely sure of the battle which had produced so much flotsam and jetsam. Based on Ben’s reading of military history during his teenage years they agreed it must have predated the Galactic Civil War. Though he had admitted that his selections had been based on a preference for works of a romantic, swashbuckling bent than accuracy or completeness, something Rey had found rather endearing.For all they knew the extensive wreckage had been left over from some far more ancient battle, long forgotten in the mists of time. In any case the ships involved clearly had been massive, on the scale of a Super Star Destroyer at least. There were a significant number of pieces that easily dwarfed The Orphan which looked like they might have been sections of engine manifolds.

Rey took a sharp breath through gritted teeth. Finding a hiding place amidst the lazily churning expanse before them was one thing, but manoeuvring The Orphan into position was another and would require some very fancy flying. She didn’t doubt she could do it, but she didn’t trust the chaotic paths traced by the detritus ahead of them, and she knew that between time pressures and her present mood, her focus and control were not at their best.

She turned to Ben, “Right then, you’re up.”

“Really?” Ben was momentarily taken aback. Rey loved flying, and he had become accustomed to her regularly beating him to the pilot’s seat. Her style might be considered by some to be a little rough around the edges, and she tended to push The Orphan a bit harder than he might but she was exceptionally skilled, notwithstanding the fact that she was self-taught, and he never begrudged her the opportunity to take over the controls.

Rey gestured towards the newly vacated pilot’s seat, “She’s your ship, I don’t want to be the one to get a scratch on her.”Her hazel eyes sparkled with mirth as she added, “I know what you Solos are like.”

A slight smile broke across Ben’s face as he switched seats. She certainly had his measure. No matter how old and busted the Falcon was, each and every new scratch or dent she had received had been a personal affront to his father. And, like his father before him, he was just as particular about The Orphan. He knew he would still love her in years to come, when to everyone else she would be garbage, an outdated piece of junk, barely held together with a mixture of profanity, hope and sheer stubbornness.

Ben glanced at the ship’s chrono. “We’ve about an hour before they are due to arrive. If you could get the trackers ready, I’ll find us a suitable piece of debris to latch on to.”

Ben gently banked The Orphan to bring them alongside the debris field and began scanning for a hiding place. Rey gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze of encouragement before heading down to the lower deck.

 

 

She pulled out the crate and opened it to reveal a cache of thick disc shaped trackers, they were compact and fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. They were autonomous units with very little processing power. All they really needed to do was latch on to a ship. They didn’t even have to transmit anything. Based on the same principle as the cloaked binary beacon Leia had once given Rey, each was part of a matched pair; its mate was back on Yavin being monitored by Connix and her special comms ops team.

Rey didn’t exactly understand the science. Something to do with ‘quantum states or entanglement’ they had told her. Though at that point towards the end of a day-long meeting she had not been paying a huge amount of attention. She didn’t particularly care how they worked so long as they _did_ work.

Rey activated each tracker in turn before carefully placing it in the small airlock. Once done she sealed the hatch and over pressurised the airlock to give an extra kick to allow for further and wider dispersal.

“All ready at this end.” Rey called over the comm. “How is it looking up there?”

“Not too bad, I think I’ve found our home for the next few hours. We are holding about five hundred kilometres from the edge of the field now. You can launch the trackers.” He was trying to sound nonchalant but she could still detect a certain amount of tension in his tone.

“I’ll be right up,” She replied before hitting the release. There was a muffled thud as the outer airlock opened and the air pressure rapidly equalised expelling the trackers from the ship.

Before heading back to rejoin Ben, Rey ducked into their quarters and rummaged around in the small closet where they kept things like spare blankets, a change of clothes and other odds and ends. She pulled out two faded navy blue padded cold weather jackets and two pairs of gloves. They smelt faintly musty but she doubted that would be of much concern them in an hour or so. She put on on the smaller of the two jackets and stuffed the gloves in one pocket.

As Rey reentered the cockpit, Ben pitched the ship up suddenly and she stumbled forward, letting the coat she was carrying drop as she reached out to steady herself.

“Sorry!” Ben’s voice was strained as he gripped the ship’s controls and fought against invisible eddies that threatened to whip the ship dangerously off course. The Orphan was shuddering and straining in a manner that put Rey in mind of the Falcon on a bad day. Somewhere in the distance utensils clattered.

Rey looked up to see a lazily rotating, mass of metal hove into view. It easily dwarfed them andwas criss-crossed with carbon scoring. As they continued their rough course towards it, they passed through a cloud of smaller pieces of metal. A moment later she fancied she heard brief, high-pitched scraping along the ship’s hull. Wincing, she glanced over at Ben, but his concentration did not waver though she sensed a momentary tinge of annoyance as he scowled and gripped the controls even tighter.

On the scanner, their target resembled a large cylinder that had been violently sheared in to two. Ben had managed, with no little effort, to orient the ship so that it was aligned within the concave form, shielding them from view, but at the same time obscuring theirs.

Gradually he eased off the thrusters letting inertia carry the ship the rest of the way towards its goal. There was a dull thud as The Orphan made contact with their temporary hiding place and then a judder as it was secured in place.

Ben let out a long, ragged breath, his shoulders, which had been practically up around his ears, relaxing as the tension of the last few minutes dissipated. He took a moment to collect himself, flexing his hands, to alleviate the stiffness that had built up, before leaning over and scooping up the fallen jacket and pulling it on.

Meanwhile, Rey dropped into the co-pilot’s seat and did a final check before she initiated the ship’s power down sequence. Every single system needed to be shut off including the emergency power to ensure they were not detected. They had enough air to last them a good few hours, plus emergency supplies. But it was going to get very cold long before hypoxia became a pressing concern.

The artificial gravity generator spun down and Ben plucked the gloves Rey had dropped out of the air as they drifted past and pulled them on.

At first the weightlessness provided an amusing diversion but as it got colder the uncomfortable reality of the mission was borne to bear on them. Ben pushed himself over to Rey and pulled her close to keep her warm.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Rey muttered into his shoulder.

“It will be fine. All we have to do is wait.”

Waiting. She had been good at that once. But now she found it very difficult. Perhaps it was because she now had everything she had been waiting for. Or very nearly everything.

The mission itself had sounded so simple. Then again every single one of their missions to date had been straightforward when outlined by the Republic’s intelligence officers. They needed to be or no one would ever volunteer for anything.

Go here, do this. Maybe use the Force.

It doesn’t work like that, Ben would interject, exasperated, while Rey would invariably slump forward, her head in her hands. If people weren’t actively wary of them and their inexplicable abilities they seemed to view the Force as a kind of panacea that allowed them to easily achieve anything they wanted. Rey was beginning to think that really everyone needed a basic course on the Force, what it was and what it most certainly wasn’t.

Alright then, they would concede, just do your Thing then. Pick up this data, intercept this person. The details were always left up to them.

And so they did. Most of the time everything went reasonably smoothly; almost too smoothly; Rey had a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that it was only a matter of time until that one mission where everything would go spectacularly, maybe even fatally, wrong. She felt it was as if all the mishaps were being stored up to be unleashed all in one fell swoop.

In an effort to put off that day as long as possible or even head it off, she was always on alert for that particular sensation, or lack thereof, that might suggest the presence of those odd force-dampening lizards. She would often lay awake at night trying to recall how the edge of that bubble felt so that she would be able recognise it again. She tried to recapture that feeling again now, but failed miserably, her mind was a disjointed whirl not unlike the maelstrom in which they were hiding. As much as she enjoyed being enveloped in Ben’s arms at that moment, she just wanted the damned ships to turn up so they could get on with the rest of the mission and get out of here.

Rey weighed up what she was going to do first once everything was up and running again. Turn up the heat as high as it would go in their quarters, or make a large mug of khav. No, she deserved a treat, a large mug of cocoa it would be. Then she would roll herself up in all the blankets she could find while she drank it. Ben’s thoughts betrayed a very different way of warming up.

Rey choked on a laugh. “You are utterly incorrigible!”

“It’s one of my better traits,” He admitted, as he held her tighter, his breath warm on her neck.

Her response was to mutter a harumph-like sound in to his shoulder.

 

—//—

 

Hours seemed to pass though in reality it could only have been minutes. Rey wasn’t sure if it was the first signs of hypothermia or the gentle motion of the ship, attached to its raft-like shelter, as it moved with in the larger expanse of debris, but she began to feel drowsy.

Her mind wandered, not to the usual place of calm as sleep claimed her; a grassy cliff edge with the sounds of waves breaking against rocks metres below it. Instead she was laying in a wide-bottomed boat drifting on a lazy river edged by softly undulated green hills. Overhead a canopy of leafy boughs screened out the sun’s harsh glare. Her head resting in the nook of Ben’s shoulder while their fingers intertwined.

“It’s so peaceful here,” she murmured. “Everything else seems so far away that it might as well not exist.”

Ben’s heart leapt when she spoke, realising that she had somehow found herself in his daydream.

“I’ve wanted to bring you here for so long.” he replied softly, nervous of breaking the spell.

 

—//—

 

Rey woke with a jerk. The motion of the ship had changed. A jolt from unexpected angle had buffeted the ship, disturbing the gentle motion that had initially lulled her to sleep. She was cold again, no longer held in Ben’s arms. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Ben frowning in concentration as he reached out beyond the ship and the debris field. His eyes squeezed shut.

“They’ve arrived.” He said, his voice strained with effort.

Realisation slowly dawned. Rey understood now why he had volunteered for this mission. On a ship drifting, dead in space, how could anyone else have completed this mission undetected without the Force? For once those desk bound officers had been right.

Following the direction Ben had taken, Rey, too, stretched out with the Force. A few hundred kilometres away, two ships had converged.

Between themselves and the ships she could detect the swarm of tracker drones drifting away from the debris field, it was a strange feeling that left a faint metallic taste in her mouth, it was very different from the sensation organic matter engendered in the Force. Mustering all her strength she nudged one tracker towards the closer of the two ships. Unlike lifting rocks on a planet, fighting against gravity, only a little push was needed to send the tracker tumbling faster towards its target. Beside her, Ben followed suit and another tracker latched on to the hull of the other ship.

The exertion of blindly controlling such small objects from a distance gave Rey a headache, ironically just behind and around her eyes. The last time her head had hurt like this was the first time she’d caught a head cold on Yavin that had settled into her sinuses.

She sent one or two more trackers on their way before she broke off, letting herself drift in the cockpit, her eyes half closed, focusing on centring herself and bringing her perception back to acomfortably small radius around herself. Not long after she felt Ben return. For a moment he kept his eyes squeezed shut as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. It seemed her reaction was not uncommon.

“That never gets any easier.” He said eventually.

“I think it’s a combination of not being able to see anything and it being space. It feels like there’s nothing to work with.” Rey agreed.

“I find it’s just harder with manmade inanimate objects. Or I’m out of practice.”

“But we’ve never had any trouble with lightsabers.” Rey pointed out.

“I think that may be in part due to bonding with the crystals, the natural part of the saber, there will be something about it in those texts you, er, liberated.”

Rey considered this. That might explain why Luke’s saber had flown in to her hand on Star Killer base.

“But why did your saber come to me so easily on the Supremacy?"

“Probably because somehow we had already bonded at that point?” Ben suggested.

“And Luke’s old saber breaking? If it had bonded with me, then why did it not come to me as easily as it had done on Starkiller Base?”

Ben shrugged “Maybe the Force is a hopeless old romantic and just wanted us to be together.”

“A funny way of showing it. You really do have an answer for everything don’t you?”

“If I’m being honest, no, I don’t. I’m making this up as I go.” He replied with a rakish grin.

Rey’s earlier bad mood finally dissipated and she began to laugh. It was simply too much effort to be annoyed for long, especially when Ben was in one of his playful, flippant moods.

“Ok, it may be hokey nonsense but I like the sentiment.” She said as she took his face in her hands and kissed him soundly. She was about to ask him what he had been about to ask her or tell her on the boat when he suddenly stilled and drew back from her.

“What is it, _now?_ ” She grumbled in annoyance.

He grinned lopsidedly, a particular grin of his, rarely seen, that made her consider whether she wanted to brain him or kiss him for his roguish presumption.

“Sorry sweetheart, we haven’t got time for anything else; they are preparing to leave.”

Rey just rolled her eyes, she’d deal with him later.

They were buffeted again as the two ships manoeuvred away from each other. A moment later they jumped into hyperspace one after the other. The twin wakes of their jumps hit the edge of the debris field and the ship and its hiding place were violently rocked. Elsewhere other pieces of detritus collided. Hyperfuel cells containing remnants of unspent Coaxiam and power plants impacting each other resulted in a series of small explosions that further churned up the field.Luckily the nearest explosion was few hundred kilometres away;but still too close for comfort and near enough for it to have potential effects.

“I’m officially done with this now.” Rey said as she pushed herself back towards the co-pilots’ station. Another wave hit the ship and she found herself spinning away from her goal.

“Damnit!” Rey flung out one hand in an attempt to find some purchase to orient herself.

Ben, his greater height proving useful for once in a confined space, had managed to grab the back of the pilot’s seat and had inelegantly managed to manoeuvre himself into it. He had shrugged into one of the crash harness straps to keep himself in place. Without looking he reached and grabbed Rey by the ankle before she accidentally kicked him in the head as she floundered and tugged her down towards the co-pilot’s seat.

“Thanks.” She muttered as she gripped the edge of the control console and wrapped her legs around the base of her seat to keep herself in place.

She leaned forward and flicked the switch to initiate the ship’s start up sequence. The emergency generator kicked in and hummed cosily for a moment, before it spun down to a sickening whineand juddering halt.

Ben shot her a look, she was frowning and her rising irritation was palpable.

Rey flicked the switch once more with the same result. Suddenly her surroundings seemed to fade away and her whole universe became the bank of switches that sat dumbly before her. Her heart began to pound in her ears, and even though it was already cold her blood seemed to turn even icier.

Taking a moment to try calm down she closed her eyes, took first one breath and exhaled slowly, and then another.She then tried the switch once more, willing it to work.

“No, no, NO!”, Rey began muttering under her breath rising to a crescendo as irritation turned to frustration and fury in a manner that reminded Ben very much of his father.

Before he could say anything, she had reached over her shoulder and grasped the back of her seat. In one smooth motion she pivoted and launched herself out of the cockpit and towards the engineering bay on the lower deck. Her expression was dark like an avenging angel as she flew.

Ben followed her and found her with an access panel open, pulling out wires.

Without turning she barked at him to fetch her the small emergency power generator. He duly complied. The thick gloves she wore made it hard for her to tease apart the thick stack of wires to locate the ones she needed. She pulled them off with her teeth, and spat them out to one side. It rapidly getting colder and even without the gloves on she was finding it difficult to plug in the necessary wires snaking out of the panel into the generator. Holding the generator steady Ben attempted to use the Force to help control Rey’s hands as they shook with the cold.

“Thanks,” she said through chattering teeth. Ben glanced at her hands, they looked worryingly white.

With the generator up and running Rey moved to another station and booted up the ship’s maintenance terminal. She was very glad she had insisted on an isolated, redundant system. She would be able initiate the ship’s boot up sequence from here. Her hands shook slightly as she slowly and deliberately keyed in the necessary commands to bring up the prompt that allowed her to execute the boot up sequence.

While they waited for the command line interface to load Ben pulled off his gloves and started to vigorously rub her hands to get the circulation going in them again.

She smiled weakly at him. She couldn’t bring herself to voice her true concerns at this moment, nor was it necessary, he could feel it. She was terrified. A moment later a cursor on the screen started blinking in anticipation of input. Reluctantly she withdrew her hands from his and keyed in the boot up command while Ben looked on, both willing it to work.

The main emergency generator came to life before repeating, for a fourth time, its refrain of failure.

Ben bowed his head in silence as Rey swore under her breath. He blanched, hearing terms he’d never heard before.

Rey closed her eyes and breathed again, taking stock of what she had at her disposal. The terminal would allow her to manually start up each of the systems independently if need be, though it would take time and she wasn’t sure how much they really had. This was not the time to panic or give in to anger. She would have plenty for that later. She would make sure of it. Ignoring the tingling sensation in her fingers she began to type commands. Lines of code scrolled up on the small monitor.

“Is there anything else I can do?” Ben asked quietly, even though they were now far outside the realms of his expertise. He considered himself a pilot of more than passing proficiency and had made it a point to be able perform necessary mechanical maintenance on his primary ship. But he now realised that he put a huge amount of blind trust, borne primarily out of ignorance, in all of his ship’s many systems.

“I don’t think so.” She replied tersely. “I’m looking through the boot up sequence code to see why the damn thing isn’t executing properly.” She squinted as she scanned the code for booting up each of the ship’s many systems. To Ben the strings of characters were indecipherable.

Nothing jumped out at her. She rubbed her eyes, and took a moment to still her breathing. When she opened them again she looked at the code and the glaring error jumped out at her.

“What the actual…” she breathed as she leaned in close. No, she hadn’t misread it. Fuck.

“What is it?”

She wiped the condensation from her breath off the cold screen with her sleeve, and stabbed a finger at a line of code.

“This instruction here, it can’t be, shouldn’t be, called before this one here.” She pointed at another line of code.

Ben examined the two lines of code. They looked exactly the same to him.

“They are not the same. It’s a poor design in the software. There’s a subtle difference. These systems need to be started up in a very specific order. Otherwise… well, we know exactly what the result is.”

“Can we fix it? The start up sequence I mean?”

“No, it’s stored in protected memory - so it can’t be changed on the fly. This terminal is just for diagnosing problems; viewing the code. We need an astromech or a data chip with the correct code on it to overwrite from.”

“Well we don’t have a droid, do you have a copy of the boot up sequence to hand?”

Rey shook her head. “I never thought we’d need it. However I can run the sequence manually, or rather an abbreviated one of the bare minimum of systems we need to get out of her and get home.The whole sequence would take forever to input Even a shortened one will take long enough.”

At least it’s not a hardware problem Rey thought to herself. Please let there not be a hardware problem as well.

Ben looked apprehensive. “How long?”

“I don’t know, I’ll need to type the commands in manually, but the sooner I start the sooner I finish.”

“Is there anything I can do?” He asked again, feeling helpless and useless.

Rey didn’t look up, she was hunched over with her arms crossed over her chest, hands in her armpits in an attempt to keep them warm. She was scanning the boot up sequence again trying to determine which systems weren’t strictly necessary and which were part of any dependencies.

“Not unless you know of any Force techniques for communicating with computers, no.” She snapped as she unfolded her arms and began to type in the first of far too many commands.

“I think you should head back on up to the cockpit and be ready to get us out of here as soon as I give you the signal.” She added, her tone softer.

Ben turned and pulled himself through to the upper deck. A moment later the ship’s emergency generator hummed to life this time without interruption. It was shortly followed by the emergency lighting blinking of, casting the ship’s interior in an eerie red glow. 

As he made his way back to the cockpit he could detect the sound of various systems starting up, the hiss as the emergency life support system kicked in, its scrubbers working overtime to normalise the ship’s atmosphere.

“Well, that’s something,” Rey said aloud to herself with a mirthless laugh, “at least we won’t suffocate while we freeze to death.”

The next set of systems all technically required main power to be online to function, but she was concerned by the effect the prolonged cold had been on the main generator’s fusion reactor.

She was going to have to assume it was going to need some sort of manual intervention but she wouldn’t have time to spare afterwards to get the rest of the systems up and running. She was going to have to chance it and hope that they would happily run in a suspended, lower power mode without overloading the emergency generator. If the ship’s systems had been designed with any sense once the main power kicked in they should switch over and complete their start up.

The joints in her fingers ached as she typed in yet more commands; trying to hurry and yet take her time to avoid any mistakes. Mentally she ticked off each system as she booted it in to low power mode: comms, scanning, hyperdrive, steering control, thrusters, navigation, gravity generator. The emergency lighting flickered and dimmed as more systems booted up and hung in limbo; hungry for more power than was available.

Finally she entered the command sequence to restart the ship’s main generator power plant. She held her breath as it came to life, before a system alert flashed up. It blithely informed her that for reasons of security the master isolation switch would need to be disengaged and reengaged before the start up sequence could be completed. Rey rolled her eyes and grabbed a wrench that was floating nearby before propelling herself towards the aft of the ship.

Her nose and finger tips were now completely numb and she had just managed to gain purchase on the last catch of four to remove the access panel that covered the isolation switch when the ship suddenly and violently lurched, sending her tumbling down towards the fore of the ship and their quarters. She managed to catch the wrench before it hit her in the face. The ship was beginning to roll and Rey struggled to return to the aft and her unfinished task.

“Rey…" there was an uncharacteristic tremor in Ben’s voice. " that bad feeling you had. It’s just arrived.” 

“I’m a little busy down here!” Rey gasped as she tried to find some purchase on the ship’s smooth bulkhead. That was the trouble with these fashionable sleek, elegant, ships; no obvious foot or hand holds on the walls. “You can tell me all about it later.”

She slid down again, tears of frustration began welling in her eyes. Suddenly, she felt a light pressure around her waist as if two large, strong hands had grasped her and she slowly began to move upwards towards the access panel. She reached out and willed her fingers to lift and twist the last catch on the panel. She grasped one of the other catches and tugged the smooth panel away fromthe bulkhead, revealing the large U-shaped switch housed behind it.

She released the panel and wrapped a hand around the switch’s handle. Her fingers were now were not only pale, they had a worrying blue tinge to them and she couldn’t even feel the handle’s sharp edges. She wrenched it down with all her might. Nothing happened. She stared blankly at it for a moment before remembering that she needed to reengage it.

Gripping the cold metal handle even tighter she pulled it up with all the strength she could muster. The effort sent her spinning, and she wasn’t even sure if it had worked until the ship suddenly hummed to life, lights flashed on, generators started to whirr and the artificial gravity slowly returned. Rey stumbled to the floor, or what was nominally the floor. She slammed her hand down on the emergency release to detach The Orphan from the debris it clung to like an insect on a leaf.

 

_PUNCH IT._

 

Her command hit Ben squarely between the eyes. Instinctively he pulled on the controls, and The Orphan peeled away from the large piece of metal. The ship tipped fore over aft out of the stream of debris. Strapped into his seat Ben weathered the shift as well as could be expected.

Rey’s stomach shifted as the ship tore away from the debris field. The artificial gravity generators were still spinning up and she found herself in a brief free fall as the ship rotated about her, before righting itself. She slammed to the deck, landing on her side. She rolled over on to her stomach with a groan.

She scrambled to her feet willing her jelly-like legs to work and dashed to the cockpit where Ben was waiting impatiently for the navigation system to finish its start up sequence, his fists clenching and unclenching.

The one thing Ben missed about the Falcon was its navi-computer. Its databank held far more information, and it was able to compute complex esoteric routes better than any other he had come across, but it was so deeply enmeshed with the rest of the Falcon’s tangle of a computer system that he had never found a way to successfully copy any of the data or the computational algorithms.

As Rey gazed out of the window, her jaw dropped. Lumbering through the field of debris was a staggeringly massive object. She estimated it to be at least a twenty five kilometres in width and twice again as long. It was roughly cuboid and appeared to be gorging itself on the fragments of metal that it drew into its open maw.

“What in the hell is that?” She breathed as she gripped the back of the pilot’s seat in an attempt to steady herself.

“Garbage scoop of some kind. They go around collecting debris, bring it back to a centralised area for sorting and reclamation, that kind of thing. Space scavenging if you like. There’s good money in it. It’s fully automated so we’d have had no chance of alerting it to our presence.”

They watched from a safe distance as as the drone ship inhaled their former hiding place and powerful lasers then sliced and diced the metal as if it was the flesh of a soft fruit.

So much for sorting and reclamation Rey thought with a wince. She was glad she hadn’t known what was out there, inexorably advancing on them, while she had been busy with her last desperate attempt to get the systems to reboot. The adrenaline surge wore off and the combined effects of the early stages of hypothermia and hypoxia suddenly hit her. Her legs went out from under her and she collapsed on to the still frigid deck. Ben hurriedly set the ship on a safe course away from the debris field and flicked on the autopilot before jumping up and scooping her up in his arms.

Rey was a limp dead weight he carried her down to their quarters. He occasionally jostled her to keep her awake, her eyes fluttering in response accompanied with a grumble of protest. Ben gently placed her on the bed, she lay there immobile while he darted about the room gathering up blankets and pillows.She was vaguely aware of being rolled from one side to another as he bundled her up in a blanket.

Ben then turned the thermostat up as high as it would go before heading to the galley. It was a mess, beakers and utensils lay scatter about the floor. Luckily they were all metal so nothing had broken, just a few dings and dents. Ben stooped and quickly scooped up the mess and opened a cupboard to retrieve the canister of ersatz chocolate drink Rey was so fond of before flicking on the water heater.

Back in their quarters Rey lay curled up in a cocoon of blankets staring at the ceiling. Slowly the warmth and feeling returned to her fingers and she curled them around the edge of the blanket, marvelling at the ability to feel delicate textures again.

But she was not happy, far from it in fact. Once the warmth had returned, anger and bewilderment followed. Already she was planning her next steps, determined to run a full diagnostic on all the systems when they returned to Yavin, to make sure nothing else had been compromised. She would check with Rose and find out who else had had access to the ship before the had left, and god help them when she found them. Oh! And they would never again travel without Artoo.


	3. The Return

An anxious Poe and Rose were waiting for them at the landing area outside the main hanger. Ben’s message to the traffic control team had been terse, as was usual for him. Years subjected to Snoke’s training and dealing with the impersonal manner of the First Order controllers had taken their toll and had damped all his natural tendencies.

There had been an occasion, not long after he had joined the First Order, when Ben Solo had not yet been fully buried, where he had engaged one of the flight controllers in some friendly, almost ebullient chatter as he took a new Tie Silencer out for the first time. No sooner had he returned to the Supremacy than he had been summoned before Snoke and subjected to his new master’s particular brand of punishment, before being forced to execute the unfortunate controller he had dared to befriend. After that he ever again attempted to bond with anyone; either they would hurt him or worse, he would hurt them.

Rey had sent a separate, coded message to Connix, who had, in turn, alerted Poe and Rose to their unexpected return. Rey’s message had been a short as Ben’s and only marginally more informative. She had only conveyed that something had gone wrong. She had been so livid that she had not actually specified that the problem had been with the ship.

Unfortunately, Connix and Poe, neither of whom had expected to see them back for at least another forty eight hours, had both jumped to the wrong conclusion. The latter was under the impression that Ben and Rey had quarrelled, badly; while the former feared that the mission itself had failed and that their whole counter-intelligence programme at risk of compromise. Rose, ever the pragmatist, tried not to make any assumptions before she had all the facts.

Rey pelted down the boarding ramp, her colour now high, eager to find and wring the neck of the tech who had carried out The Orphan’s pre-flight maintenance check.

“What happened? Did you two have a fight?” Poe demanded as he positioned himself in front of her, taking hold of her arm when she attempted to push past him. He quickly looked her over. Her cheeks were flushed and she was dishevelled but appeared unhurt. Poe glanced up and past her to Ben who was trailing after, looking defeated, drained, and far paler than usual.

Rose shook her head in exasperation. She, at least, had been privy to some of Rey’s misgivings about their current situation. She also suspected that it was highly unlikely that she and Ben had had a falling out.

Rey recoiled from Poe, jerking herself out of his grasp. Her brows were drawn together in a frown so uncharacteristic that he took a hasty step back.

“No! Why would we?” She exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously. Poe’s insinuation irritated her, adding to her anger over the issues with the ship. She was tired, tired of what at that moment felt like his constant questioning of the robustness and appropriateness of her and Ben’s relationship.

Poe was confused, if Ben and Rey hadn’t quarrelled then why were they back here with Rey spitting fire and Ben looking like he’d been through hell.

Rose wished Poe would stop shooting off his mouth for two minutes so Rey could explain the situation. She caught Ben’s eye, he gave her a small grim smile and just shrugged.

Chastened by Rey’s outburst, Poe paused and moderated his tone. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I thought you were going to…” Behind Rey, Ben shook his head sadly.

Poe snapped his mouth shut, realising that Rey was still unaware of the now aborted unofficial second leg of their mission.

Rey wheeled around, Ben now the unfortunate focus of her anger.

“Going where, Ben?” She demanded.

Ben sighed, the Lothcat was well and truly out of the bag now and running away as fast as it could. “Naboo.”

Rey felt her heart drop like a rock. All at once it fell in to place. Ben’s recent furtiveness, the sharedboat on the river. He _had_ tried to tell her and she’d fallen asleep. She kicked at a small weed growing through a crack in the paving.

“Someone fucked up the start up sequence on the ship.” She fumed, her voice dangerously low. Louder, she added, “I had to restart all the systems manually so we didn’t freeze to death, or suffocate, or get sliced up by some crazy trash eating drone ship.” An edge of hysteria crept into Rey’s voice. Ben was already by her side enveloping her in his arms. The surge of adrenaline that had been sustaining her anger was dissipatingrapidly and she went limp in Ben’s grasp.

Rose went deathly pale. “What do you mean the sequence is… wrong?”

“Feel free to check for yourself,” Rey said weakly as she waved towards the ship. “I’m sorry Rose, but from now on I want no one to have access to this ship apart from you, Ben and myself. No exceptions.”

“Of course,” Rose nodded in assent. She turned and signalled to one of the nearby techs who had stopped working to surreptitiously observe the scene. They flushed with embarrassment before approaching and handing her a diagnostic kit. Rose dismissed the technician and hurried aboard the ship. She was distressed and not a little put out by what she had just learned and was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.

 

Rey was so tired of it all. The mission now felt like it had set up written all over it. Disheartened and upset, she withdrew from Ben and started off in the direction of the residential complex and their depressing rooms. Was this how it would always be, a promise of something better only to have it cruelly snatched away at the last moment. Like how Ben had let her down on the Supremacy…

“Just where do you think you are going?” Poe called out in his most authoritative tone.

She turned and cast him a look that warned: Don’t start with me. I don’t care who you are. Just don’t.

Poe’s tone softened. “You two are still going away for a few days. You deserve it. Hells, you need it. And I don’t want the two of you hanging around here in a bad mood. Please, don’t make me have to order you to go. Rose will get the ship sorted out and I’ll get Connix to have a look into the rest.” 

Before either of them could protest he strode off towards the main hanger, talking animatedly into his comm. Ben held out a hand to Rey, and she slowly returned to him, smiling weakly as she took his hand, and let him draw her close.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s an old, bad habit of mine. ” she whispered as she leant her forehead against his chest.

Ben stroked the back of her head, it always seemed to be the best way to soothe her when her temper reared its head. “It’s alright, sweetheart. You don’t owe me an apology. I didn’t know how to tell you. I need to work on that. I did warn you that my family is not the best at communicating.” He added with a mirthless laugh.

_And I did let you down, and I’m sorry._

Rey shook her head, her eyes had lost their flinty hardness. “It’s probably for the best. Had I known beforehand I would have been even more annoyed.”

“What a terrifying thought. So, would you like to leave all this behind for a few days?”

One corner of Rey’s mouth twitched, partially from the tickle of Ben’s warm breath on her ear and the thoughts she could sense bubbling away at the forefront of his mind. Head back to their bleak rooms and potentially days of meetings and de-briefings or spend a few days away from a cycle that had been wearing her down; it was a easy choice to make.

“I would love to.”

“Right, we’d better hurry then.” He declared as he took her hand firmly in his and and they hurried to catch up with Poe.

 

The main hanger was a bustling hive of activity; pilots and techs were swarming around ships in various states of refit, some almost completely stripped bare.

Vara, up to her elbows in her X-Wing’s exhaust manifold, paused to brush a strand of hair from her grease slicked face and frowned when she saw Poe stride in to the hanger, followed shortly afterwards by Ben and Rey at a brisk run.

“What are they doing back so…” she started to ask.

“Slight hiccup.” Poe said hurriedly as he headed towards the back of the hanger where a familiar ship was sitting.

Poe found Chewbacca tinkering with a bit of conduit on the top of the Falcon’s hull that for the better part of forty years had been a thorn in his side. That, and the Falcon’s continuing instance that it needed to be replaced outright. The conduit had a habit of rattling on reentry; no one else ever seemed to hear it, but, with his more sensitive hearing, it drove Chewie to distraction.

“I thought you said you were ready to go!” Poe called up to the Wookiee.

Chewie waved and barked a reply before giving the conduit one last perfunctory whack with his multitool and clambering down.

Ben and Rey reached the Falcon just as Poe was giving Chewbacca some last instructions.

“Ok, Chewie is going to drop you off at Theed and collect you in four days time.” Poe explained as he motioned for them to board.

“Four? I only requested two days.” Ben began.

Rey nudged Ben “Hush, if the man wants us to have four days off let’s take it!”

Chewie gave a warbling roar of agreement.

“Fair enough.” Ben shrugged, “who am I to argue with that?”

Poe stood with folded arms trying to look stern, though in reality he felt more like bursting out laughing at the expression on Ben’s face. “Well then get going!”

They were half way up the gangway when Rey suddenly stopped and turned on her heel.

“But wait. We don’t have any of our luggage, what are we going to…” she began to protest.

Poe rolled his eyes. “Oh like you’re going to need anything. I’m sure you’ll find some place to buy a toothbrush! Now get going!” He gave up and began to laugh as the hatch closed.

 

Chuckling to himself, he retraced his steps as the Millennium Falcon’s engines started up, spluttered to an abrupt halt and then started up once again, this time more steadily. Shaking his head at the absurdity of his friends’ private lives he wandered over to Vara’s X-Wing.

She had removed part of the engine’s outer housing and was nearly halfway inside trying to scrape out some unholy gunk that had been clogging up the fuel line, oblivious to the man stalking up behind her. Firm hands closed around her waist and she jerked her head upwards in surprise, banging her head.

“Fucking hell! That better be you, Dameron.” She yelled.

He pulled her out of the back of the ship and spun her around before setting her on the floor. She was utterly dishevelled; her hair was plastered with grease and her face smudged with streaks of carbon. One hand held a viscous glob of grease and carbon which she waved off her hand. It landed on the flag stones with a wet plop. She scowled at him. As far as he was concerned she looked glorious, especially when she was put out.

“And if it wasn’t?” Poe enquired.

Vara gestured with the wrench she was holding in her other hand, “You’d lose all use of your favourite body parts for at least week.”

Poe winced, and sidled closer. “And because it is?”

Vara gave him a wicked grin, and tossed the wrench over to the young tech who had turned bright red with embarrassment at the scene he was witnessing and was trying to not draw attention to himself.

“Finish this up for me would you. The Senator and I have some very urgent business to attend to.”

She grabbed Poe’s wrist and half dragged, half marched him out of the hanger.

“How many days did you give them?” She asked nonchalantly.

“Four.”

Vara considered this. “Generous.”

“They can handle it.”

“Oh, I have no doubt.” She suddenly stopped and turned to face him. “The question is Senator, can you?” She cocked one eyebrow quizzically.

A wide grin broke across Poe’s face. “You know me. I’m always up for a challenge.”


	4. Epilogue

On the far side of the galaxy, in a cool, spacious chamber that somehow managed to exude both opulence and austerity, Armitage Hux was seething with a white hot fury. A vein on his temple throbbed dangerously and his nostrils flared as he paced. He focused on the perfect regularity of his stride and the clean tap of his shoes on the highly polished marble floor, as heclenched and unclenched his fists in time with his steps

He did not resort to throwing chairs or destroying his surroundings, instead he bottled up his rage. Lashing out like a petulant child was for the weak and undisciplined; for people like Kylo Ren.

His plan had been so perfect with a kind of poetic beauty to it. Had anyone come across the scene after the fact, it would have served as a stark warning to anyone who dared cross the First Order. No matter how long it took, retribution would always be exacted. And next to wielding power Hux loved nothing more than to make demonstrations of that power.

Reaching the far end of the room he turned swiftly on his heel. The plan should not have failed. Her latest conquest on Yavin - “some tasty youth” in the maintenance pool - hadn’t even been aware of anything out of the ordinary when he ran the daily automated maintenance check on the ship.

Hux had been delighted with the plan’s simplicity; a minor, innocuous tweak made to the ship’s boot up sequence. If the code change was ever later discovered the trusting simpletons of the Republic would have probably accepted it as a tragic mistake and nothing else.

One of the few pleasures Hux allowed himself was imagining the various ways Kylo Ren would ultimately perish by his hand, either directly or indirectly.

In this case the most immediate causes would have been freezing to death or suffocation. Bothwould have been protracted and either would have sufficed.

The ship and its loathsome occupants would have been left drifting along with the rest of the garbage. And, eventually, the physical evidence would have been neatly tidied up by the automated reclamation drones that trawled the sector.

 

But they had survived and returned safely. In a foul mood, sensing foul play. The girl, the one who held Ren’s leash, had clearly sensed something was amiss because she had insisted that no one was to do any work on the ship or even so much as go near it, apart from herself, Ren and someone called Rose Tico.

His contact had demurred at working on Tico. Too obvious, nor, did she want to put herself on _her_ radar. Hux had sworn profusely down the comm. She had coolly replied that she wouldn’t be spoken to like that and abruptly terminated the call. He had waited a few moments before he tried contacting her again but there had been no reply. Going by previous occasions when he had irked her it might be days or even weeks before she deigned to speak to him again.

Hux mentally berated himself for taking that tone with her. She was a powerful ally; in truth his last real confederate and it had been foolish of him to antagonise her. She’d come around eventually, she wanted what he wanted as much as he did, or so he assumed, and once his star was in its ascendancy again, he would repay her for all her service to him.

His attention was suddenly claimed by the muffled pinging of another comm. Hux frowned. That particular comm’s code was known to only a select few, and it had, mercifully, lain silent for a very long time. So much so in fact that Hux had almost forgotten its existence. He hurried over to the elegantly carved desk and opened the drawer. As he picked the comm up and read the message that scrolled across its small screen, he bitterly wished that that was still the case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope you've enjoyed this shorter piece. If you are curious as to what happens next, certain threads are picked up again in [The Canto Bight Caper](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771693).

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://alicestill.tumblr.com) feel free to drop by and say hi!


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